Appeals to "democracy" in discussions like these tend to have a whiff of "No True Scotsman" to them, where "democracy" is defined as the form of government which is subject to the will of the majority but that cannot be captured by any interest we disapprove of. In reality, democracies do insane things all the time.
As somebody that's been on the ground passing out fliers for my town's restore the 4th rally that I helped organize yesterday, I've seen this apathy manifest itself not only in terms of disinterest, but also in outright anger that I would be so reckless and dangerous as to try and put pressure on our leaders to abide by the rule of law. I've been cussed out, called a communist by a military veteran, told to "get a job" (I actually have a great job), etc.
It seems that if an issue does not directly affect the lives of the masses negatively, such as the food shortage and economic instability that catalyzed the popular military coup in Egypt, the docile public will support whatever it is the powers that be tell them to. Here's to hoping some of the remaining leaked documents provide evidence of just that...
Large groups of people aren't great at at dealing with issues way out in the future like this.
While that certainly could be the case, I think you are ignoring the fact that there are many citizens who perhaps have been around long than you have that have decided that it really isn't a problem from their perspective and that it's a necessary evil. Things can't be perfect. And that they have given it some thought and are willing to put a certain amount of trust in the system to produce the right outcome.
Second, when you're talking about the majority of Americans finding a new country to live in, you're not just in the weeds, but also howling at the moon from them.
Third, it is fallacious to presume that people who don't have a problem with what NSA is doing now don't respect the 4th Amendment. It's right there in the text of the Constitution: searches must be reasonable. The Constitution punts on what "reasonable" means; that's why they used that word. There's no absolute for you to fall back on here.
I happen to agree with you that omnibus metadata collection is dangerous and should be further checked by the law, but I can also see both sides of the issue, and you can't, and I think you should try.
I would personally be fine with just having more transparency and using warrants issued by real (not secret) courts, even if we keep some of the technologies themselves, since I'm sure they are powerful tools to protect against the real threat of terrorism. But yes, when I consider the millions of lives that have been given to accomplish and defend the set of protections we have as Americans, I do mean it when I say that those who prefer security to freedom should consider finding a different country in which to live, even if it's not logistically feasible to do so. That's just because I'm personally an idealistic, rather than pragmatic, person.
I also apologize for getting overly political in this thread. I'm just coming off the tails of the rally yesterday.
[1] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/29/glenn-greenwald-nsa... - Read: "they're storing every call and have the capability to listen to them at any time"
"I'm just coming off the tails of the rally yesterday."
(Emotion involved in your thinking process? We're not talking about a brutal attack that you yourself witnessed. We are talking about being at a rally and hearing what someone is saying. A great thing about HN is the discourse on both sides and even then there can be a echo chamber and crowd effect.)
"I'm also coming from the position of hearing Greenwald describe an imminent set of leaks"
(Accuracy of this information - have you decided he is correct?)
If I had to label myself (and I don't like to label myself) I would say I am the opposite of this:
"I'm personally an idealistic, rather than pragmatic, person"
What scares me is that people get riled up by a rally in that way based upon crowd psychology http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Crowd_psychology
If he has such important information, shouldn't he simply publish it instead of doing a striptease? That's marketing, not journalism.
I think this article adds to the thesis that the NSA apparatus is not a product of democracy. While you can trace its origin to a law the people approved, it's no longer controlled by democracy. At least it wouldn't be if our leaders had their way, and people like Snowden and Ellsberg were silenced.